Wedding Nanny

Wedding Nanny

Give your wedding guests a hand with their childcare needs for your big event! Hiring a wedding nanny may allow some close friends and relatives to attend your wedding who would have been unable to otherwise.

Often times when guests from out of town are invited to a wedding, they have to bring their children along because finding overnight care can be tough. If you can fit it into your wedding budget, hiring a “wedding nanny” for the event is usually much appreciated by guests with small children.

You always have the option of inviting the children to the wedding, and many caterers will charge a lower price for children’s meals. But, if you do not plan on having children at your wedding, there are several options for helping your guests with childcare.

Whether or not your guests are from out of town, they still may be unable to attend your wedding due to lack of childcare for their children on that day.

It’s possible that their regular sitter is young and her curfew is far too early for the couple to commute to the wedding, attend the ceremony, attend the reception afterwards and get back home.

Another possibility is that their babysitter may get sick or just cancel at the last minute.

Perhaps they are just unable to find a babysitter available for the date of your wedding.

If you can afford a wedding nanny in your budget, you should arrange to hire a nanny (or two) to care for the children of any guests in need. Sending a note or response card in with the wedding invitation informing your guests of this childcare option, will give friends and family plenty of time to plan. This may be the deciding factor for some guests as to whether or not they are able to attend your wedding.

If care is needed for more than just a few children, you would want to hire a nanny that has several years experience and is a little older. While 13-15 year old babysitters can be just as reliable and responsible as older sitters, it can be a challenge for them to care for more than two or three children at once. Depending on the number of children that will need care, you many need to hire two or three wedding babysitters.

Ask guests to confirm whether or not they will be utilizing the wedding nanny’s services at least a month in advance of the actual wedding date. This will give you time to find adequate coverage for the number of children needing care. Also, it will prevent you from wasting money on extra babysitters who will be sitting around doing nothing if guests make other arrangements for their children.

You can find babysitters or nannies by asking friends or relatives in the area that use sitters if they can recommend someone. If you don’t even know where to begin to find a nanny for your wedding, try an online nanny or babysitting service.

Since you are only looking for a wedding nanny for a day or two, you would probably only need to get a one month membership which is very inexpensive. One month memberships to online babysitting and nanny services usually range from $24.99 – $49.99. Some even have free trial memberships!

Of course, the babysitter(s) needs to be paid an hourly wage on top of the monthly membership as well. Decide up front if she will be paid a flat rate for the evening, an hourly wage, or a fee per child per hour. When estimating the number of hours you will need the sitter to work, consider whether or not you would need her for any before or after wedding parties or events such as a rehearsal party or post-wedding brunch.

Some couples allow children at the ceremony but not at the reception. This might be one way to cut costs. If the children attend the ceremony with their parents and then get dropped off with the wedding nanny for the reception, this could knock an hour or two off the total number of hours you need the wedding babysitters to work.

Consider where the babysitter(s) will be taking care of the children.

If the wedding reception is at a hotel, and it is within your budget, you might consider renting a room at the hotel where the babysitter can care for all of the children.

Many churches and/or houses of worship have a children’s room that you may be able to use or rent for a small fee.

If one of the guests that lives nearby needs a babysitter for the wedding also, perhaps all the children could be taken care of at her home.

Check with family and close friends that live in the area of the wedding to see if someone has a finished basement or other appropriate area where the sitter can care for the children.

Whatever location you choose, be sure it is well stocked with kid friendly food, snacks, drinks, and also toys, coloring books, puzzles and maybe some movies. Also if you do use a nursery in a house of worship, be sure there is a telephone or cell phone there so that parents can call to check in with their children if they wish, or in case of emergency.

If it isn’t in your wedding budget to provide childcare for the children of your guests, then perhaps you could just pay the one month fee for the nanny service, select a babysitter or two, and let each family pay their portion of the babysitter’s hourly fee themselves. Sharing a babysitter should significantly reduce their childcare costs for the evening.

If you are really on a tight wedding budget, you could also check classified advertisements, library bulletin boards, grocery store bulletin boards, and any other place where local babysitters advertise their services and make a list of names and numbers to give to your guests. The guests can then contact, screen, and hire a babysitter themselves to care for their children at their own hotel room or wherever they are staying.

If you are doing the hiring, remember to check references of all potential wedding nannies no matter where you found them. Your guests will probably trust your judgment and not check references themselves. Remember to use the helpful hints contained in this article to help ensure that all goes smoothly between your guests with children and your wedding nanny!